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The Devil's Secret Name
A highly decorated Green Beret commander and acclaimed military writer, Jim Morris spent his post-Vietnam years as a journalist on assignment in the world's most dangerous battle zones. Armed only with a reporter's eye and a soldier's heart, he covered the Third World conflicts that served to forge a post-Cold War world, shaping both lasting peace and sowing the seeds of global terrorism. An embedded journalist, years before the term was coined, he bore witness to the fierce realities and uncertain outcomes of guerilla warfare.
From the jungles of Southeast Asia to the shattered peace of the Middle East and the violent twilight world of El Salvador, here are the frontline dispatches of a veteran reporter and seasoned soldier. Inevitably the only reporter on the scene, Morris chronicles more than combat shrouded in the fog of war. Living among the soldiers, these remarkable battlefield reports capture the extraordinary courage, unwavering faith, and the dark humor common to all combat troops.
From the jungles of Southeast Asia to the shattered peace of the Middle East and the violent twilight world of El Salvador, here are the frontline dispatches of a veteran reporter and seasoned soldier. Inevitably the only reporter on the scene, Morris chronicles more than combat shrouded in the fog of war. Living among the soldiers, these remarkable battlefield reports capture the extraordinary courage, unwavering faith, and the dark humor common to all combat troops.
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
3 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Jim Morris
19 books27 followersJim Morris served three tours with Special Forces (The Green Berets) in Vietnam. The second and third were cut short by serious wounds. He retired of wounds as a major. He has maintained his interest in the mountain peoples of Vietnam with whom he fought, and has been, for many years, a refugee and civil rights activist on their behalf.
His Vietnam memoir War Story won the first Bernal Diaz Award for military non-fiction. Morris is author of the story from which the film Operation Dumbo Drop was made, and has produced numerous documentary television episodes about the Vietnam War. He is author of three books of non-fiction and five novels. He has appeared on MSNBC as a commentator on Special Operations.
For the past decade he has immersed himself in a deep study of Toltec shamanism. His research in this topic has taken him to Central Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru. He has completed two rigorous apprenticeships in this tradition.
His Vietnam memoir War Story won the first Bernal Diaz Award for military non-fiction. Morris is author of the story from which the film Operation Dumbo Drop was made, and has produced numerous documentary television episodes about the Vietnam War. He is author of three books of non-fiction and five novels. He has appeared on MSNBC as a commentator on Special Operations.
For the past decade he has immersed himself in a deep study of Toltec shamanism. His research in this topic has taken him to Central Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru. He has completed two rigorous apprenticeships in this tradition.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 26, 2011
In terms of hyperbole Morris is something extra. Here we have a nostalgic Vietnam vet with red beard and glasses longing for some action. The editor of the Soldier of Fortune magazine sends him out to cover some current conflicts in Beirut, Cambodia, El Salvador and a few other places. Morris then does his best to try and involve himself into the conflict at hand. He keeps asking local commanders for a rifle and to join their patrols, requests that are typically denied or stalled. In Beirut he is not allowed to visit the frontline, Thai soldiers stop him from "infiltrating" into Cambodia and the Myanmar drug lords he tries to arrange meetings with want nothing to do with him.
The prose is mostly about throwing Vietnam-era acronyms around or describing the particulars of the camouflage patterns on the uniforms he borrows from his hosts. The rest of the book is spent mulling on how he is the only reporter that the local soldiers respect, how his girlfriend is prettier than everyone else's or how amazing the local food is ("we went for a cheeseburger"). The fate of this stellar account of investigative journalism is sealed by the introduction written by the former CIA director R. James Woolsey who goes on about the Soviet Union and its desire to arm the world to prevent people in the west from living in freedom and democracy.
Morris also has his own theory on warfare; his many years in the business has convinced him that all wars in the world are different manifestations of one and the same; The war of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics against peace and prosperity in the rest of the world. Maaatrix!
The prose is mostly about throwing Vietnam-era acronyms around or describing the particulars of the camouflage patterns on the uniforms he borrows from his hosts. The rest of the book is spent mulling on how he is the only reporter that the local soldiers respect, how his girlfriend is prettier than everyone else's or how amazing the local food is ("we went for a cheeseburger"). The fate of this stellar account of investigative journalism is sealed by the introduction written by the former CIA director R. James Woolsey who goes on about the Soviet Union and its desire to arm the world to prevent people in the west from living in freedom and democracy.
Morris also has his own theory on warfare; his many years in the business has convinced him that all wars in the world are different manifestations of one and the same; The war of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics against peace and prosperity in the rest of the world. Maaatrix!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 20, 2016
The book really rates a 3.5 star. Probably more if I had read the author's previous book first. I enjoyed the beginning and the end a great deal, though the middle was a bit lacking. Fascinating look into the Third World fighting and wars that were happening in the 80s from a Green Beret/Mercenary journalists' perspective. Unfortunately a subject that most American's know nothing about. Since my grandfather was at the height of his political career during this time (working with many of the same anti-communist, anti-soviets, ultra conservatives), much of the discussion in the book is familiar to me. The subject is a very interesting and relevant one to our time.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews